Wednesday, February 25, 2009

So after a week of a studio deadline while glancing at the Tour of California tracker now and then, I'd like to bring up some photos which describe what I enjoyed about the race this year. First off, the online tour tracker was great, because I don't get Versus on campus and was in studio most of the time anyway. Second, Frankie Andreau isn't the greatest commentator in the world, but he still makes Craig Hummer look like a retard (he is one). Bob Roll has started to grow on me, so I don't mind adding his thoughts to the mix (as long as they are somewhat understandable, he knows what he's talking about for the most part).Also, Johan Bruyneel getting to shave Roll's head: priceless.There were some fantastic looking kits to see for this year, I had to start off with DZ's awesome US TT champ skinsuit, and the equally matching bike (all he needs is the helmet to be red white and blue)Rock Racing's kit is just awesome. I mean, they'll probably take a step back from last year supplying their own clothing and a different kit for every major race, but Louis Garneau was glad to pick up the slack. ANARCHY!!!Columbia-Highroad's kit is interesting. Not a fan of the fake six-pack, but the white and yellow is starting to grow on me. Cavendish thinks anybody who dislikes the kit can suck deez nuts:Now, on to the fans. Oh, these people do get their 15 seconds of fame very stylishly, and this year's race didn't keep any of them from coming out. Big hair superfan is a definite hit:The pope gave the peloton his blessing:Gigantic Sumo guys bounced around as their small legs moved really fast up Palomar:The Montana classic becoming more common:This year the Longhorns made an appearance, giving more proof that this should be done in the ECCC:Just when you need motivation, and the pain is getting so bad that it becomes the focus, all you need is a reminder:For if you don't pedal, you could grow weak, and maybe end up looking like this guy:And my absolute favorite, probably because of the blatant shot at Lance, is Mr. LIVECLEAN:Leave your EPO at home kids. Lets start some outrageous ECCC costume-chasing crowds, preferably on climbs or time trials.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

You guys had to just go about posting your training data on your ECCC blogs, when no one wants to see how puny you are. I wasn't posting my data because I didn't want to make any of you feel bad, but you've left me no choice it seems.Basically, yesterday I went for a 12-hour ride to home in CT and back, the first two hours or so I did 18-minute repeat intervals, but then whipped out some sprint paced intervals at roughly 4000 watts or so and jumped on the Mass Pike for awhile, getting alot of strange looks too. I called my mom on the way in, and she handed me the t-shirt I went to get via musette bag. On the way back I was just doing steady-state on the hills in western Mass averaging about 26. After I got back I recorded the data, but I was surprised to see it didn't graph my power output above 1800. Oh well, pretty much my average ride data not much changes as far as numbers.

I think I'm gonna return the SRM, I don't need it to school all you noobs for the collegiate season. In fact, you guys should really just quit now if you can't even post moderate power numbers. Take your bike, sell it on ebay, because you're all a bunch of tools, go ride your fixie around town without brakes and smash into cars because there is no place for you in the ECCC.

I'm going to hang out and play guitar with John Petrucci, who is pretty much the equivalent on guitar to me on a bike. Later

Thursday, February 12, 2009

So our design man Greg Foti spent a good nine months or so on this design (on and off of course). We went with Hincapie Sportswear this year for clothing, thanks to the deal that they offered ECCC teams (thanks to Columbia for coordinating that) and we didn't stop short of accessories. Much to my despair, we couldn't get skinsuits because of the minimums for the very small team that we have, but going full-out with jackets, ls/ss jerseys, bibs, arm warmers, caps, t-shirts, gloves and booties. A $6K order is alot for a small team, but just about everyone got more than the basic jersey and shorts.

Now for the design:

TO BE UNVEILED AT RUTGERS

Yes, this design is going to be a hands down favorite for the Best New Jersey on the ECCC Survey at the end of the season. But I will give some hints:White is very Euro, the pureness of style. For those of you not familiar with the concept of Euro, you should read up on the Rules of the Euro Cyclist: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=2258201150&ref=tsNow this is our mascot, the Leopard. One of our Architecture professors was asked to create a small face logo to be used for printed admissions material and so on, he was nice enough to let us incorporate it in our design. Don't assume that we just tiled them or copied a polka-dot pattern, this is unique and won't be seen anywhere else, you'll just have to wait for Rutgers to see.

So out of a spur of the moment decision, I now have a blog. I probably should be doing CAD drawings, but I've had enough of that this week. When I have more time this weekend hopefully I'll fix up this layout and wide picture above.

I'm pretty pumped for starting the collegiate road season, after a good winter break of logging many hours a week on the bike, I've decided to start the season racing the A field. This will probably be the biggest wake-up call of my life, but after discussing with NU's Mark Theeman, its better to start in A because the B riders still crash as much as the C's and D's, especially in the begining of the season. I intend on getting my ass kicked to a certain extent, I'm a Cat 3 so I'm kinda qualifyed for A's, but I'm not training with Powertaps or SRM's and the only hint I have of what my power levels are come from a Kurt Kinetic Computer that only is accurate when I'm on the trainer. I got a Garmin Edge 705 over the winter though for when the race bike comes back from Calfee (thats a story for another time) and maybe down the road I'll make some investment into a SRM or PT.

Crashing is lame, and made me get four stitches at the Beanpot Crit last year because a Tufts rider couldn't corner a course on his own damn campus:Here's the guy going down, MIT is about to slide and I'll get the instantaneous reaction of sliding too.There I go, and for some reason I don't put my hands in front of my face, and...BAM! This lucky photographer happened to capture the exact point my face hit the ground. That resulted in an angry ambulance ride to get stiched up, there's still a slight mark in my skin from it but for the most part you can barely notice it.

Back to CAD, might get to sleep around 4ish tonight, hopefully I can get some outside riding in tomorrow before it pours on Boston and drops below freezing again.

Pages I Like:

About Me

I'm a graduate student of architecture at Wentworth. I usually get little amounts of sleep due to the amount of studio work I have, on top of training and running the Wentworth Cycling Team. I am a Collegiate A, Cat. 2 Road and Cat. 3 Cross rider riding with all the other Boston-area ECCC badasses for Green Line Velo.